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Last updated on 2021-05-09.

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Omar Yaxmehen Bello-Chavolla

Medical Doctor, specialist in Applied Statistics and PhD in Medicine, graduated summa cum laude from UNAM. I am an Associate Professor at the National Institute for Geriatrics in Mexico, I am also a Human Physiology and Statistics lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine at UNAM. My research recent work has focused on the development of machine learning approaches to improve personalized medicine in cardio-metabolic diseases, as well consistent data-driven evaluations of the impact of COVID-19 in Mexico and the assessment of metabolic aging through body composition analyses. For my research work, I have received the Dr. Jorge Rosenkranz award for Medical Research for the development of the METS-IR index to quantify peripheral insulin sensitivity and in 2019 the Mexico City government awarded me the Youth Merit Award in Environmental and Public Health.

Research Experience

Associate Professor

Bello-Chavolla Lab, Research Division

Instituto Nacional de Geriatria

Current - 2020

  • Lab Coordinator
  • Lines of research: 1) Data-driven phenotypes of Metabolic and functional aging. 2) Heterogeneity of metabolic diseases in Mexican and admixed populations. 3) Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applied for the study of metabolic diseases.

Graduate Researcher

Metabolic Disease Research Unit

Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán

2019 - 2016

  • PhD researcher in Metabolism and Applied Statistics
  • Projects: Development of carido-metabolic surrogates for epidemiologic research
  • 15 published articles, 3 book chapters.

Visiting PhD Student

Bordeaux, France

Institut de Santé Publique, D’epidémiologie et de Développement, Université de Bordeaux, France

2017 - 2017

  • Visiting PhD work with the Three City Study
  • Project: Development of a predictive model for dementia in type 2 diabetes
  • Training in Applied Statistical Modeling using R

Education

PhD in Medicine

Mexico City, Mexico

Faculty Of Medicine - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

2019 - 2017

  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude
  • Mentorship: Dr. Carlos A. Aguilar-Salinas

Specialist in Applied Statistics

Mexico City, Mexico

Institute for Research in Applied Mathematics and Systems - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

2019 - 2018

  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude

Medical Doctor

Mexico City, Mexico

Faculty Of Medicine - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)

2018 - 2011

  • Graduated Summa Cum Laude

Areas of Expertise: R programming, Data management, Experimental design, Fixed and random effects models, Mediation analysis, Predictive modeling, Parametric and non-parametric Survival analysis. Supervised machine learning, Boosting, Neural Networks

Teaching Experience

I am a main lecturer of the graduate programs of the PhD in Medicine and Masters in Sociomedical Sciences degrees at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I also teach undergraduate Physiology as part of the General Medicine CUrriculum at the Faculty of Medicine at UNAM.

Statistics Lecturer

Mexico City, Mexico

PhD in Medicine and Masters in Sociomedical Sciences, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Current - 2020

  • Topics: Multivariate Statistics, Introduction to Statistical Modeling

Physiology Lecturer

Mexico City, Mexico

Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Current - 2018

  • Topics: Human Physiology



Research Awards

SNI 1

CONACyT

Mexico City, Mexico

2020

  • Recognized as National Researcher Level I (SNI 1) by the National Researcher System of the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology

Interstellar Initiative Award

New York Academy of Sciences

New York, USA

2020

  • Selected as participant in the Interstellar Initiative 2020-2021 Workshop by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development

Lindau Nobel Laureates Meeting

Lindau Nobel Laureates Fundatio

Lindau. Germany

2020

  • Selected as representative of the Mexican National Academy of Sciences to participate in the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting to be conducted in Lindau, Germany during July 2021.

Best Scientific Paper published during 2018

National Institutes for Health

Mexico City, Mexico

2019

  • Best original Scientific Paper published during 2018 from the National Institutes of Health in Mexico, awarded by the National Health Ministry.

Mexico City Youth Award 2019

Mexico City Government

Mexico City, Mexico

2019

  • Mexico City Youth Award 2019 in the “Public Health and Environment” category for the development of metabolic risk prediction tools specific for Mexican population.

Gustavo Parada Social Service Award

National Autonomous University of Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

2018

  • Gustavo Baz Prada Social Service Award 2018 for the program “Development of predictive models in Metabolic Research”, awarded by UNAM.

Dr. Jorge Rosenkranz Award for Clinical Research

Mexical Healthcare Foundation

Mexico City, Mexico

2018

  • Dr. Jorge Rosenkranz 2018 Medical Research Award in Clinical Research for the work “METS-IR, a novel score to evaluate insulin sensitivity, is predictive of visceral adiposity and incident type 2 diabetes” awarded by the Mexican Healthcare Foundation

Innovations

Mechanistic Score for COVID-19 lethality (MSL-COVID-19)

Predictive model

N/A

2020

  • Models developed to assess risk of mortality and severe COVID-19 using particularities of cardio-metabolic comorbidities in Mexicans. These tools were employed within the clinical triage facility of the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán in Mexico City.
  • Published on doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0244051
  • Link: https://uiem.shinyapps.io/nutri_cov/

Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF)

Clinical Marker

N/A

2019

  • I developed an equation that combines METS-IR with age and the waist to height index to estimate visceral adiposity, as well as metabolic risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus and incident systemic arterial hypertension. It is specific for Mexican and Latin American population.
  • Published on: doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2019.07.012

Deep Learning for classification of data-driven Diabetes subtypes (Clusters SNNN)

Classification algorithm

N/A

2019

Metabolic Sore for Insulin Resistance

Clinical Marker

N/A

2018

Selected Publications

Pushing the boundaries of precision nutrition to tackle Alzheimer’s disease: is there a role for DHA?.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

N/A

2021

Adaptive metabolic and inflammatory responses identified using accelerated aging metrics are linked to adverse outcomes in severe SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences

N/A

2021

  • Márquez-Salinas A, Fermín-Martínez CA, Antonio-Villa NE, Vargas-Vázquez A, C Guerra E, Campos-Muñoz A, Zavala-Romero L, Mehta R, Bahena-López JP, Ortiz-Brizuela E, González-Lara MF, Roman-Montes CM, Martinez-Guerra BA, Ponce de Leon A, Sifuentes-Osornio J, Gutiérrez-Robledo LM, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Bello-Chavolla OY.
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glab078

Validation and repurposing of the MSL-COVID-19 score for prediction of severe COVID-19 using simple clinical predictors in a triage setting: The Nutri-CoV score.

PLoS One

N/A

2021

Profiling cases with non-respiratory symptoms and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections in Mexico City.

Clinical infectious Diseases

N/A

2020

Clinical characterization of data-driven diabetes subgroups in Mexicans using a reproducible machine learning approach.

BMJ open diabetes research & care

N/A

2020

  • Bello-Chavolla OY, Bahena-López JP, Vargas-Vázquez A, Antonio-Villa NE, Márquez-Salinas A, Fermín-Martínez CA, Rojas R, Mehta R, Cruz-Bautista I, Hernández-Jiménez S, García-Ulloa AC, Almeda-Valdes P, Aguilar-Salinas CA; Metabolic Syndrome Study Group; Group of Study CAIPaDi.
  • https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2020-001550

Unequal impact of structural health determinants and comorbidity on COVID-19 severity and lethality in older Mexican adults: Considerations beyond chronological aging.

The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences

N/A

2020

  • Bello-Chavolla OY, González-Díaz A, Antonio-Villa NE, Fermín-Martínez CA, Márquez-Salinas A, Vargas-Vázquez A, Bahena-López JP, García-Peña C, Aguilar-Salinas CA, Gutiérrez-Robledo LM.
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa163

Predicting Mortality Due to SARS-CoV-2: A Mechanistic Score Relating Obesity and Diabetes to COVID-19 Outcomes in Mexico

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism

N/A

2020

  • Bello-Chavolla OY, Bahena-López JP, Antonio-Villa NE, Vargas-Vázquez A, González-Díaz A, Márquez-Salinas A, Fermín-Martínez CA, Naveja JJ, Aguilar-Salinas CA.
  • https://doi.org/10.1210/clinem/dgaa346

Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF), a novel estimator of intra-abdominal fat content and cardio-metabolic health.

Clinical Nutrition

N/A

2019

  • Bello-Chavolla OY, Antonio-Villa NE, Vargas-Vázquez A, Viveros-Ruiz T, Almeda-Valdes P, Gomez-Velasco D, Mehta R, Elias-López D, Cruz-Bautista I, Roldán-Valadez E, Martagón AJ, Aguilar-Salinas CA.
  • https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2019.07.012

Pathophysiological mechanisms linking type 2 diabetes and dementia: Review of evidence from clinical, translational and epidemiological research.

Current Diabetes Reviews

N/A

2019

METS-IR, a novel score to evaluate insulin sensitivity, is predictive of visceral adiposity and incident type 2 diabetes

European Journal of Endocrinology

N/A

2018

  • Bello-Chavolla OY, Almeda-Valdes P, Gomez-Velasco D, Viveros-Ruiz T, Cruz-Bautista I, Romo-Romo A, Sánchez-Lázaro D, Meza-Oviedo D, Vargas-Vázquez A, Campos OA, Sevilla-González MDR, Martagón AJ, Hernández LM, Mehta R, Caballeros-Barragán CR, Aguilar-Salinas CA.
  • https://doi.org/10.1530/eje-17-0883

Editorial Work

PLoS One

Associate Editor

N/A

Current - 2021

  • Associate Editor in the section of General Medicine

BMC Endocrine Disorders

Associate Editor

N/A

Current - 2020

  • Associate Editor in the section Epidemiology of Endocrine Disorders

Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience

Topic Editor

N/A

Current - 2021

  • Topic Editor: Modifiable RIsk Factors of Accelerated Brain Aging and DementiaT

Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Editorial Felow

N/A

2022 - 2020

  • Member of the 2020-2022 class of Editorial Fellows

Professional Associations

New York Academy of Sciences

Member

N/A

2021

Endocrine Society

Early Career Member

N/A

2021

American Society of Nephrology

Early Career Member

N/A

2021

European Society of Endocrinology

Early Career Member

N/A

2021